Thank you, Mr. Speaker. My contribution to the time is I only have two questions.
As you know the Sahtu, like many other communities that are serviced by the MTS company, depend solely on the barging of goods and services and is a lifeline to sustaining these communities, including this government to the institution in these communities.
We are in a similar situation as last year with the recent cancellation notice given today on the barge and acknowledging that narrows down servicing the Sahtu communities along the waterway for seven out of 52 weeks for the whole year.
We have learned something with last year's cancellation. My question to the Minister of Infrastructure is what measures are taken for the fuel resupply and the inventory control considering the government cutoff at the end of March, and if we have enough fuel to last us until next winter road season? Mahsi.
Thank you, Member for Sahtu. Minister of Infrastructure.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, it is certainly not a good day for water levels in the Northwest Territories and certainly not a happy day that we've had to cancel the barge season. Having seen last summer and the challenges that there were from having low water, to have to begin this season at the same point certainly makes it very challenging.
Having gone through last summer season being as challenging as it was, MTS made itself -- put itself in a position where this winter road season and, frankly having sat down with leadership, including the MLA from the region -- sat down and made sure that the plan for the winter roads, usage of the winter roads, would work around ensuring a full resupply to communities. So I can say not every community is resupplied by MTS or, rather, really, it's by the fuel services division who take responsibility. But for those communities that are, and so for instance this would include Fort Good Hope, Tulita, they are -- they were -- that was built into our planning for them. Fort Good Hope is coming now over the top along with several other communities. Again, having planned for this challenging year, bringing the resupply up from over the top and rather than up the Mackenzie from the South. We have others that relied on the winter road. So Deline, Colville Lake, they also were resupplied additionally this summer so that they can get to the winter resupply 2025 if they have to. That wasn't our first choice, but we already knew that it would be a challenging year.
So at this point in time, Mr. Speaker, with respect to fuel resupply, I'm happy to have the chance to assure communities.
And I'll just note Lutselk'e included, they are fine. That barge is going at this point. So at this moment in time, the communities for which the government is responsible do have enough to get through to the winter season will be getting a resupply this year. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. And thanks to the Minister for that reply and information here. We all learned something, and I thank the Minister for some heartful discussions we had prior to the winter road season closing back in our last sitting of February. Since then, we have delivered additional fuel with the assumption that there might not be any barge, so it was very comforting to know, looking back now, those plans were discussed, actions were taken, and the additional shipments of fuel went to some of these communities.
And my question to the Minister is, is there going to be inventory checks to see where we stand in terms of volume in the communities and the consumption of these communities? Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, I can say that when we went through challenging times right around Christmas time and New Year's time, and we certainly were involved in terms of how to come at that moment when it was already of concern to do inventory of what was in each community. So I expect that we don't want to be in that position again. We'll be making sure that this time around, having come to the point where we know what our resupply was over the winter road season, that we can then monitor that over the course of time. Norman Wells, of course, does rely on Imperial Oil as being their provider, so. But, again, we all went through the challenges of this winter together, including Imperial Oil. So when we reach out to them and say, you know, we need to know your plans and your situation, I am, you know, hopeful that they have taken that to heart and that they will be doing the same in terms of understanding what their inventory's at and what their resupply plans are. But, again, as far as the communities that the fuel services division is responsible for, which are all of the nonmarket communities, we are going to -- we already had looked. We already have made sure that they were at a point that they will either be resupplied for up to the point of 2025 levels, and we'll be making sure to monitor that we not be surprised by anything between now and then and that we get through to that winter 2025 season or, again, for the communities that are getting from over the top, that they get that in due course and as expected and as scheduled. Thank you.
Thank you, Minister of Infrastructure. Oral questions. Member from Great Slave.
